pioneer

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I realize how fortunate I am to walk in the footsteps of Ethel Percy Andrus, who founded AARP in 1958, the year I was born. As I seek to “disrupt aging” — to change the conversation in this country about what it means to grow older — I often think about the enormous challenges she faced as she sought to bring about social change during her time. Dr. Andrus was truly a “disruptor” in …

Isabel Benham was the first woman to become a partner at a Wall Street bond firm, but it wasn’t easy. When she graduated from Bryn Mawr with a degree in economics in 1931, a dean at the school gave her some advice on how to get a job in the financial industry: Learn to type. Others were more dismissive. “Go home to mother, join the Junior League, get married and live happily ever after,” she recalled them saying. Fortunately, Benham, …